PERFECT LITTLE MURDER
US, 1990, 100 minutes, Colour.
Teri Garr, Robert Urich, Susan Ruttan, Florence Stanley, Tom Poston, Jeffrey Tambour, Alex Rocco.
Directed by Anson Williams.
Perfect Little Murder is an entertaining telemovie, capitalising on what it parodies: the ins and outs of the absurd emotional tangles of soap operas as well as the kind of detection seen in such series as Murder She Wrote.
Teri Garr and Robert Urich are a couple who move to the suburbs. They have a clown figure as the communication link to listen to their baby – but it catches on to the conversations from a cordless phone and there are indications of murder. Teri Garr immediately goes about her own work of detection, with all kinds of soap opera theories.
After a frustrating time and the possibility of breaking up the marriage, she is proven correct. The supporting cast enliven their characters (who are not quite so psychologically coherent on reflection) and the murder is solved, not without threat to her life.
The film is entertaining, is a parody of so much of television and of television watching.
1. Entertaining comedy thriller? The satire on soap operas and the inclusion of sequences? The parody of murder mystery-solving series?
2. The move to the suburbs, the identical houses, the kind of lifestyle, comfortable middle class – and the selling of house and beauty products? The parody on the suburbs, the musical score?
3. The title, the planning of the murder, the listening in to the planning, the failed execution?
4. Marsha and Ross, their lives together, campaigning for social themes, their living together, the baby, the marriage? Moving to the suburbs? The reaction to the house, Cynthia and her intrusion? The overhearing of the murder plans? Marsha and confiding in Ross? His disbelief? Her going to the police, the reaction of Detective Locke?
5. Her plans for detection, the range of the connection, her drawing the map, becoming a saleswoman, meeting all the couples, looking for clues, the invitation to the barbecue, her dinner with her friends, the warnings? The continued overhearing of the plans? Her own involvement?
6. The frustration of Detective Locke, his patronising Marsha? His frustration at the visits? The finale and the arrests?
7. Cynthia and her husband, her not believing, Don and his being so reticent? His bewilderment listening to Marsh? The improvement in the sex life of the couple?
8. Don and Judy Hecker, Judy and her depression, addicted to soap operas, envious of people with jobs? Her being the suspect, going to her husband’s office and taking the tablets? His bluff front, friendly, desperate at Judy’s listening to soap operas, trying to warn Ross? The divorce, the irony that he was the killer, his attempt on Marsha, the motivation and not wanting to support Judy?
9. Judy Lipton and her husband, the athletic type and yet the cook, her deception about her job, not having the job, seeming innocent, telling the truth, arrested?
10. The near break-up of the marriage, Marsha’s eccentric behaviour, especially in leaving the doctor’s? Ross and his exasperation, at the motel? His coming back and the reconciliation?
